Lenny Henry urges UK to help East Africa

COMEDIAN LENNY Henry is fronting the BBC television version of a joint fundraising appeal by a group of UK charities to help more than 10 million people hit by drought in the Horn of Africa.

Backing the appeal for people in East Africa suffering their worst drought in over half a century, are charities ActionAid, Age UK, British Red Cross, Cafod, Care International UK, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Plan UK, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision.

“Caught up in the crisis are thousands of families trekking for days across parched scrubland from Somalia to Kenya – including barefoot children with no food or water,” said the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).

“More than 1,300 people a day, the majority of them children, are arriving in the Dadaab refugee camp in eastern Kenya near the border with Somalia. The Dadaab camp was already the world’s largest refugee camp with a population of 350,000 – larger than the city of Leicester.”